PRO TIPS FOR MAKING A spider web sheet cake
Measure your flour correctly! Adding too much flour to the recipe is the most common mistake. The best, and easiest way to measure flour is by using a scale. If you don’t have one then fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and use a knife to level it off. The batter is very liquidy so don’t panic! The cake will end up AMAZINGLY MOIST. You can use room temperature or even cold coffee in the batter if you’d prefer. Not a coffee fan? Sub in water or milk instead. If you find cake decorating to be a bit intimidating then check out my How to Decorate a Cake post, it has lots of helpful tips and a full how to video.
WHAT KIND OF COCOA POWDER SHOULD YOU USE?
I love using a high-quality Dutch processed cocoa powder. Dutch processed cocoa powder is darker, less acidic and fudgier in baked goods. You’ll usually get less rise out of it though. My go to company is Valrhona but there are lots of great brands out there, including Guittard, Callebaut, Ghirardelli and lots of organic and fair trade options too!
Can I Make This Cake Without Coffee?
Yes! Coffee really just brings out the chocolate flavor in this cake but you can use water instead and the cake turns out just fine although in my opinion it’s less flavorful.
What kind of fudge should I use for the buttercream?
I used a fudge that used natural ingredients and almost no preservatives. You can DEFINITELY just sub in 1/3-1/2 cup of melted and cooled chocolate for a great creamy buttercream.
What’s the best way to melt white chocolate?
Use a VERY LOW heat to melt white chocolate and remove the chocolate from heat before it’s completely melted. Place the bowl of chopped chocolate on a pot of gently simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bowl.
How to make a Spider Web Cake
Sift the Flour, cocoa powder, salt, sugar and baking soda into a large bowl then whisk together. Sifting is important for chocolate recipes as the cocoa powder has a tendency to clump up.
Add the sour cream, buttermilk, eggs, and veggie oil into a large bowl and whisk together. Pour the hot coffee in while you whisk and set aside. The coffee doesn’t have to be hot but because the eggs have been mixed in with all the other wet ingredients you won’t end up with a bowl of scrambled eggs!
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together. Scrape the bowl down and give it a really good stir.
The batter will be VERY thin but don’t worry, it will bake into the MOST MOIST fudgey cake ever. Transfer batter to a parchment-lined 9×13 sheet pan and bake at 350F for about 50 minutes or until the centers is set.
Beat butter in a stand mixer. Add cocoa powder and mix on low. Scrape the bowl down and mix once more. Beat in the salt and powdered sugar then scrape the bowl down add the fudge in and mix until combined.
Apply the buttercream to the cooled cake and smooth using an offset spatula. I like to apply the buttercream using an ice cream scoop.
Pipe the white chocolate in a spiral.
Use a skewer to create a web effect by dragging it from the center to the edge.
Make the spider legs by piping melted chocolate onto parchment paper in “V” shapes.
Place the peanut and regular M&Ms in the center of the web and then press the legs in. If you’ve tried this cake then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
